Thursday

Wells coming off the confidential list have been posted. KOG has another "high IP" well.

Active rigs: another day in which the number of active rigs in North Dakota exceeds the number of one year ago.

	1/30/2014	01/30/2013	01/30/2012	01/30/2011	01/30/2010
Active Rigs	189	186	204	163	90

RBN Energy: a continuation of their series on royalties. Anyone with Bakken royalties should be following this series.

 
The Wall Street Journal

I guess this is why the market is surging: GDP surges 3.2%. Despite all the headwinds. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where the growth came from. Facebook mobile ads. LOL.


Senator Reid delivers a body blow to President Obama. And they call the Republican Party divided. LOL.

Facebook shares soar to record high.

Global warming gridlocks Atlanta.

Exxon profit falls on lower production.

Shell suspends US Arctic project. Shell said it would suspend drilling in the US Arctic, as it reported a 71% decline in 4Q13 profit larely because of rising costs and lower oil and gas volumes. This certainly puts the Bakken in perspective.

Wow, that was fast: President Obama signs order for retirement accounts.

But, minimum wage is stalled -- and the President's party controls the Senate which can't seem to get its act together on this issue. And they call the Republican Party divided. LOL. This is a no-brainer for the President's party.

Egypt continues with its hard-line policies, charging Al Jazeera journalists.

Germany's perfect storm: now the German pension plan eyes a rise in taxes. Merkel's planned improvements to pensions in Germany will cost $80 billion until 2020 and lead to an increase in payroll taxes from 2019.

And again, in case you missed it the first time, Facebook's profit surges on mobile-ad growth.

Target: hackers used vendor credentials. The Target hackers appear to have breached the discounter's systems by using credentials stolen from a vendor. Maybe not so much hacking as just plain theft. I no longer have a dog in this fight. My Target account is canceled.

American Energy Partners buys Utica shale gas from Hess.

A doubling of revenues in three years is the real reason Amazon receives the benefit of the doubt from so many investors. I pretty much by all non-grocery products through Amazon. The book reseller program allows me to buy remaindered books (in perfect condition) for as little as 1 cent and $3.99 shipping charges. Not much tax on a one-cent item. The two books I bought this week have 2013 copyright dates and sell at B&N for $30 each.

The Los Angeles Times

For a newspaper that writes mostly about sports and entertainment, the newspaper found room on its front page to post the story that Exxon's profits dipped 16% to $8.35 billion. But I cannot find the OXY earnings in which the company beat forecasts by 4 cents.